Holy freaking hell. I went through this thread and all i see are people bashing the op. I understand all the blah blah about op opening new cards and being overseas and what not. But sweet jesus cut the op some slack. The merchant is the reason this happened, not the op. When the op called Amex to find out what happened, the customer service rep *should* have been a little more professional. Afterall, they are the voice of Amex and speak for the company when you call them. Ok, so an FR was triggered, but as a CSR you can still be professional while trying to explain and request information. I understand that we are at the mercy of these card issuers but not everyone out there is trying to pull a fast one. Sometimes stupid stuff happens....merchants have card readers that may not be reading properly and have to repeatedly swipe. How the hell does Amex expect a member, who is overseas, to issue tax forms right there and then? Its not like we carry tax forms around all the time. There has to be a better way than to just leaving someone stranded, whether they are carrying other credit cards or not.
All I want to say I am sorry and say Hello to everybody 
@jawbrkr wrote:Holy freaking hell. I went through this thread and all i see are people bashing the op. I understand all the blah blah about op opening new cards and being overseas and what not. But sweet jesus cut the op some slack. The merchant is the reason this happened, not the op. When the op called Amex to find out what happened, the customer service rep *should* have been a little more professional. Afterall, they are the voice of Amex and speak for the company when you call them. Ok, so an FR was triggered, but as a CSR you can still be professional while trying to explain and request information. I understand that we are at the mercy of these card issuers but not everyone out there is trying to pull a fast one. Sometimes stupid stuff happens....merchants have card readers that may not be reading properly and have to repeatedly swipe. How the hell does Amex expect a member, who is overseas, to issue tax forms right there and then? Its not like we carry tax forms around all the time. There has to be a better way than to just leaving someone stranded, whether they are carrying other credit cards or not.
I, and I am certain most others are not intending to bash the OP. The point of many of the comments is to try to expand on the situation because there are at least three sides to this story; the OP, AMEX, and the overactive merchant.
True, it is unfortunate the cards were shut off pending the conversation with the CSR, but at that point, OP needs to take ownership of the situation to catch AMEX up to the truth, in a professional manner. Refusing to provide the 4506-T is a blocking issue to resolving this easily.
It is not the OP's fault that all these things happened, but it is the OP responsibility to take the steps to try to resolve them.
OP is free to close, or allow to be closed, the accounts, but it is important to separate that decision from the information request AMEX was offering to a potentially long term customer to try to work through the issues and keep the accounts open.
You both make fair points that the Op may or may not have been less than professional, we have no idea. If that happened to any one of us, I can't imagine mainting a perfect composure. We all know how frustrated we get when a card is declined at the grocery store. Imagine being on vacation overseas. Side note to the comments about Op opening 3 accounts in a month and spending up to $7000 in that month possibly triggering the freeze? I dont see the big deal if Op was making payments. I may not know how Amex works but I doubt that would be the issue. If that was the case why not just deny one or two of those approvals as opposed to approving the 3 cards and then making a fuss about the spend.
The obvious (and justified) reason for the FR is the returned payment. Despite the OPs repeated insistance that he/she is an exemplary and valued customer (of one month), a returned payment will trigger AA from just about any lender around. Don't know if the fradulent merchant behavior was a factor as well, but the returned payment is enough.
